Tobacco-feeding device.



LEON A. CLEMENT, or MEXICO, ivrnxrco.

TOBACCO-FEEDING DEVICE.

Application Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 2, 1911.

filed June 2, 1910. Serial No. 564,614.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, Leon A. CLEMENT, a citizen of the French Republic,and resident of the city of Mexico, Mexico, have invented certain newand useful Improvements in Tobacco-Feeding Devices, of which thefollowing is a specification.

My invention relates to tobacco-feeding devices, particularly forcigar-making machines. In such machines the-tobacco placed in a hopperor container is acted upon by carding rollers, and owing to the tendencyof the tobacco to cling to these rollers, instead of dropping therefromat the proper moment, a void is formed in the mass of tobacco, causingit to be fed in an irregular manner. To overcome this defect, I haveprovided a tapping or tamping mechanism, which forces the tobacco tofill the void and even prevents the formation of any large void. 1

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate one of the many forms inwhich my invention may be embodied, Figure 1 is a vertical section ofthe part of a cigarmaking machine to which my invention is applied; Fig.2 is an end view showing the intermittent drive of the tampingmechanism, Fig. 3 is an end view of the entire driving arrangement, andFig. 4c a front View.

M is the hopper or container in which a mass of tobacco A is placed, tobe treated in the usual manner by the carding rollers N, O and to be fedor distributed to the other parts of the cigar-making machine,by meansof a conveyer at P (not shown). The rollers N, O are located one abovethe other at one side of the container M. I prefer to have the roller 0revolve at a higher rate of speed than the roller N, and to give thelatter an intermittent motion. These parts may be of any usual orapproved construction. It is a belt which carries the tobacco toward theroller 0. In the ordinary operation of such a feeding device, sometobacco fibers adhere to the rollers N, 0 instead of dropping therefrom,and as a result a void is formed such as indicated at B. In consequencethereof, the mass homogeneousness and is fed irregularly by theconveyer. According to my invention,

add a device for exerting pressure, or a tamping action, toward thepoint (the pocket between the rollers) at which the void B is liable toform. Such pressure is of tobacco loses its preferably exertedintermittently, in which case the device becomes a tapper, as in theform illustrated by the drawings. Here the tapper comprises a bar Cextending across practically the entire width of the container M, andmovable toward and from the pocket between the rollers N, O. For thispurpose, the bar C is fixed to levers D D carried by a rock shaft E andprovided with a counterweight L, if desired, butthe weight of the barshould normally cause it to drop upon the tobacco A as shown in Fig. 1.The shaft 13 carries a pulley F provided with a proecting leatherportion F and adapted to engage a leather portion G on a driving pulleyGr. Both leather portions are shown segmental, but even if only G issegmental, I should obtain the desired result, viz., an intermittentdrive of the pulley F in the direction indicated by the arrow 2, whilethe pulley G rotates continuously in the direetion indicated by thearrow 1, being driven, for instance, by means of a belt K running fromthe main pulley I to a pulley H secured to the same shaft as the drivingpulley G.

The operation will be readily understood: WVhen the friction portions FG engage each other, the shaft E will receive a partia rotation whichwill carry the levers D and bar C upward, that is, away from the tobaccoA, as indicated by the curved dotted line in Fig. 1. When the twofriction portions come out of mesh, the bar G will be carried slightlyfarther up by its momentum, and will then drop by gravity to theposition shown in Fig. 1, exerting a blow or pressure on the mass oftobacco A and forcing it toward the pocket between the rollers N, 0,thus preventing the formation of a void such as B, or at once destroyingsuch void if it should begin to form. The rotary speed of the pulleysshould of course be such as to allow the bar or hammer C to reach thetobacco and exert its blow thereon before the friction portions F Gagain come into engagement for the next upward movement of the bar G.

The intermittent movement of the bar C may be obtained by variousmechanisms, and other modifications may be made without departing fromthe nature of my invention as set forth in the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. The combination, with a container and adjoining rollers adapted toengage the matending across the container and adapted to drop by gravityand to engage the material on top, a lever carrying said bar, a rockshaft to which said lever is secured, and means for giving said shaftintermittently impulses serving to carry the said bar upward.

3. The combination, with a container and adjoining rollers adapted toengage the material placed in said container, of a bar extending acrossthe container and adapted to engage the material on top, a levercarrying said bar, a rock shaft to which said lever is secured, a drivenpulley on said rook shaft, and a driving pulley provided with a seg-Gopies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by

mental driving portion to engage the driven pulley periodically andswing the said bar intermittently away from the material in thecontainer.

4;. The combination, with a container and adjoining rollers located oneabove the other at one side of the container to engage the materialplaced therein, of a bar extending transversely of the container andadapted to engage the material on the top, a lever carrying said bar, arock shaft to which said lever is secured, a driven pulley on said rockshaft, and a driving pulley provided with a segmental driving portion toengage the driven pulley periodically and swing the said barintermittently away from the material in the container.

In testimony whereof, I have signed this specification in the presenceof two subscribing witnesses.

LEON A. CLEMENT.

Witnesses MANUEL S. CARMONA, JEAN G. DELLRUCT.

addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G.

